A reddish sheen reported this morning on the Hudson River has been determined to be red tide outbreak, an accumulation of bacteria whose dense concentration turns the affected water a reddish brown in color, U.S. Coast Guard officials announced this afternoon.

The sheen — which stretched from the vicinity of the USS Intrepid Museum to Hoffman Island, a distance of 9.5 miles — was reported at around 7 a.m. this morning and a Coast Guard investigation team was dispatched to the scene, officials said.

The determination of a red tide outbreak was made by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection working through the Hudson Regional Health Commission.

The algae concentration is moving from north to south, slowly drifting down the harbor and out to sea, officials said.

The naturally occurring algae bloom is a common event in coastal waters throughout the world.

This phenomenon is a potential health hazard to boaters and swimmers if they ingest tainted water. The concentrated algae also can deplete oxygen in affected waters resulting in fish kills.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Hudson Regional Health Commission recommends boaters and swimmers avoid the red tide and thoroughly wash all articles that come into contact.

A similar sheen was reported in Long Island Sound approximately three miles south of Jones Beach Inlet.

New clues to ship's history found at Ground Zero dig site

MARIA ALVAREZ

Photo credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan | The curved ribs of a wood hull of an 18th century ship poke up from the mud at Ground Zero. (July 15, 2010)

Archaeologists trying to unravel the history behind the 18th century ship excavated from Ground Zero have found some important maritime clues: birdshot pellets, musket balls and small cannon shot the size of golf balls embedded in the ship's wooden planks.

Why on a merchant ship? There were New Jersey "gangsters" who hid in the marshes of the Hudson River and attacked ships as they entered New York Harbor, said Warren Riess, 62, lead maritime archaeologist and historian working on the dig. Some of the remnants also may have come from weapons the ship's own crew used to protect it.

"There were still some pirates in the Caribbean at the time, but there were also gangsters in New Jersey who came out of the marshes and did some nasty things," he said.

The "work horse" merchant ship - discovered earlier this summer at Ground Zero - traveled as far south as the Caribbean, and its merchant sailors were armed with muskets and cannons to perhaps fight off pirates on the turquoise waters of the southern sea, archaeologists say.

More artifacts are expected to be discovered at the site, said Elizabeth Meade of Northport, an archaeologist who has worked at the dig and specializes in history.

The ship was used as landfill to extend the lower Manhattan shoreline and to build more piers, docks and wharves into the Hudson River, Meade said.

"This is extremely exciting," she said of the find, adding the landfill waste that's become a treasure trove of the past will "pretty much tell us how people were living back then."

The archaeological team also found broken plain white and decorative motif china; animal bones and broken crates from a market, or butcher store, she said. Also found were the shells of ship worms, which archaeologists could trace from the warm tropical waters of the Caribbean, said Riess, professor of maritime history and archaeology at the University of Maine.

A 32-foot stern section of the wooden hull is being cleaned and its wood preserved at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab. It has not yet been established if there will be funds available to exhibit the find, said Riess.

"This ship has no monetary value, but it will tell the story of what life was like back then in lower Manhattan," he said.

Also revealed are construction details of the almost 70-foot ship: It is typical of its time, but it used a lot of iron nails instead of the big wooden trundles.

"I'm scratching my head. It would have been expensive at the time to use iron nails on a typical merchant ship," said Riess, adding archaeologists still do not know where the vessel was built.

Meade and other archaeologists are still working at the site as construction crews continue to excavate the World Trade Center's new underground garage.

The archaeologists are carefully washing and analyzing bags of artifacts containing items such as the musket balls, clay smoking pipes used at the time, animal bones and broken dishes, said Meade.

"This will take some time, but we are making progress," she said. "The artifacts will tell us what the ship was used for and how the people on the ship lived."

The team of archaeologists, hired by the Port Authority, will prepare its first preliminary report in the next few months, said Riess.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/nyregion/02ferry.html

Neighbors Press Goldman Sachs on Ferry Noise

Goldman Sachs, which has certainly borne its share of public anger about the financial crisis, is now drawing heat for another reason: noisy ferryboats.

The boats, which have been running almost constantly across the Hudson River every weekday since Goldman moved into its new headquarters in Battery Park City, have generated frequent complaints from residents of the neighborhood. Goldman does not own the offending boats, but it is paying a ferry company to keep them running 16 hours a day between a floating terminal at the edge of Battery Park City and a dock near Goldman’s waterfront office tower in Jersey City.

The dispute about the boat noise has droned on for so long that Battery Park City officials have hinted that they might want to give the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the $50 million floating terminal, the heave-ho, saying the agency is violating the terms of its lease with the high noise levels.

In a letter he drafted to the Port Authority recently, James E. Cavanaugh, the president of the Battery Park City Authority, demanded an end to the “unreasonable noise” emanating from what he called the Goldman service.

Now, having fielded complaints for eight months, Goldman is preparing to solve the problem with its wallet. The firm is having two ferryboats built to its specifications at an estimated cost of more than $5 million, said people with knowledge of the firm’s plan who insisted on anonymity because they did not have permission to discuss it. The two boats, which would be more luxurious than the typical commuter ferry on the Hudson, could arrive before the end of the year, these people said.

Goldman intends to substitute the new vessels for the NY Waterway boats that have been plying the short route between its office towers on opposite sides of the river.

Mr. Cavanaugh said he hoped that the matter could be resolved without legal action, but he did not rule out the possibility of litigation. The draft letter he sent to the Port Authority said the “Goldman service” had “unreasonably inconvenienced and annoyed” some residents of Battery Park City. It alluded to noise readings taken by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection in April and May that exceeded the city’s legal limit of 10 decibels above the ambient noise level.

Mr. Cavanaugh blamed the problem on the use of older, noisier boats since Goldman increased the frequency of ferry runs — to every seven or eight minutes — when its employees began moving into the new tower late last year. The ferries run from 6 a.m. to almost 10 p.m.

The terminal is operated for the Port Authority by a ferry company known as BillyBey, which is named after its owner, William Wachtel, a politically active Manhattan lawyer. Goldman Sachs, in turn, pays BillyBey to run boats between the terminal and the Jersey City dock, known as Paulus Hook. The boats, which fly the NY Waterway commuter-service flag, are open to the public for a fare of $5.50 each way. But community leaders in Battery Park City say that, outside of the morning and evening rush hours, the ferries serve primarily as shuttles for Goldman employees.

Indeed, they run far more frequently than other commuter ferries do: NY Waterway boats run as infrequently as twice an hour in the middle of the day between the train terminal in Hoboken, N.J., and Battery Park City.

Privately, some Goldman officials bridle at the complaints, suggesting that the neighbors were piling criticism on a firm that has already been faulted in the public eye. They declined to discuss the firm’s plan to obtain its own boats.

But, in a statement, the firm said it had contracted with BillyBey “to provide the most efficient form of transportation for our employees to shuttle between our two buildings, while also providing a public service.” It added that the firm was “aware there have been some issues raised” and was working with the ferry operator to explore all options to address them.

A spokesman for BillyBey said the company had switched to newer, quieter boats after the complaints first arose late last year and had not received any complaints since then. But Mr. Cavanaugh said he had seen the older boats — nicknamed the Italian class because they were named after famous Italian-Americans like Frank Sinatra and Yogi Berra — operating on the route recently and had heard about other sightings by residents of Battery Park City.

“I saw those Italian-class boats well after Waterways promised not to use them,” Mr. Cavanaugh said. “That equipment continues to show up.”

For his part, Mr. Wachtel, the ferry operator, said, “We’re confident in short order all concerns will, in fact, be allayed.”

March 18, 2009

Like
many businesses and many families in these difficult times, NY Waterway
faces serious challenges. Let me be absolutely clear on this: We
certainly can and will find a way to continue serving you. Many
political leaders throughout the region recognize the important service
we provide. We carry about 25,000 people more or less to work and for
leisure every day. Also, it is universally known the value our ferries
provide in emergencies. We are the largest rescue fleet in the region,
maintained at no cost to the taxpayers.

I know our partners in
government will find ways to work with us to keep this vital commuter
service and this critically important emergency transportation link.
Times are tough, but we will rise to this challenge as we have in the
past:

When attacks on the World Trade Center knocked out
PATH service in 1993 and on September 11, 2001, NY Waterway was there.
We got you home, taking more than 150,000 people out of Manhattan on
9/11.

When a blackout closed all the Hudson River rail and
vehicle tunnels in 2003, we got you home, taking another 160,000 people
out of Manhattan August 13, 2003.

And when Flight 1549
crashed into the Hudson River on January 15, we were there, rescuing
142 passengers within minutes, rescuing them before they died of
exposure in the icy waters.

David W. Dunlap/The New York TimesThe view from the new Port Authority ferry terminal at Battery Park City

Years late and millions of dollars over its original budget, the floating Port Authority ferry terminal off the Battery Park City bulkhead is to greet its first commuters from Hoboken, N.J., shortly after 6 a.m. on Wednesday.

Better late than never? Ferry passengers will be the ultimate judges, but an inspection tour on Tuesday revealed a substantial and grown-up transportation structure — unlike the tent that’s been pitched in Battery Park City’s backyard “temporarily” for 20 years — with the capacity to serve even those who aren’t bound for Weehawken, Paulus Hook, Belford or Yonkers.

“This is public space, regardless of whether or not they’re riding a ferry boat,” said Paul Goodman, chief executive of BillyBey Ferry Company, which will operate and maintain the terminal under contract to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. By “this,” he was referring to the outermost deck of the 160-by-176-foot hull, which is envisioned as an extension of the Battery Park City esplanade.

About 7,000 to 8,000 passenger trips are expected daily through the terminal. (One commuter, going back and forth, would count as two trips.) Before 9/11 and the destruction of the World Trade Center nearby, the temporary terminal handled about twice as much traffic.

The authority puts the “hard” construction budget at $50 million, with “soft” costs like fees and interest bringing the total to $91.5 million. The original construction award in 2004 was $35.7 million. At the time, the authority estimated that the terminal would be completed in 2006. As recently as last summer, when the hull was under construction in Brooklyn, it was hoped that it would be open in mid-year. But there were unanticipated construction complications involving the glass windscreens that wrap the passenger deck and gangways, among other issues.

“The question is whether we can survive,” Arthur Imperatore Sr., the company’s chief executive, was quoted as saying in the article.

Both BillyBey and Mr. Imperatore’s company operate under the New York Waterway flag and both will serve the downtown terminal. But Mr. Goodman emphasized that BillyBey, which draws most of its passengers from Hoboken, owns its own boats and runs its own routes. He said of Mr. Imperatore’s financial troubles, “They don’t pertain to us.”

“We’re concerned about their future, as an operating partner,” he continued, “but we’re in very different circumstances. Our ridership has suffered but we have the reserves to weather this storm. We don’t think our operations will be affected.”

Looking around the ample, light-filled waiting area as the hull rocked almost imperceptibly on the Hudson, Mr. Goodman took the optimistic view. “As evidenced by this terminal,” he said, “the region is committed to the future of ferry transportation.”

HUDSON RIVER MILES

HUDSON RIVER MILES

The Hudson is measured north from Hudson River Mile 0 at the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan. The George Washington Bridge is at HRM 12, the Tappan Zee 28, Bear Mountain 47, Beacon-Newburgh 62, Mid-Hudson 75, Kingston-Rhinecliff 95, Rip Van Winkle 114, and the Federal Dam at Troy, the head of tidewater, at 153. Entries from points east and west in the watershed reference the corresponding river mile on the mainstem.